twenty-two keys
Alec Longstreth made my night with an email full of praise for PORTRAITS OF TWENTY-TWO KEYS:
I know it’s been MONTHS since SPX, but I’m only just now finding the
time to write some “thank you” emails for some of the awesome trades I
receieved. One such piece of work was your “Portraits of Twenty-Two
Keys” which I enjoyed quite a bit.
You have a real knack for this sort of writing. Each one of your
stories, although extremely short, piqued my curiosity and had me
wondering about the rest of the characters’ lives and interests. It
was like a really awesome collection of short stories, which was even
cooler (I thought) because of the small size of each entry. Each
“key” could be expanded into its own whole story!
Anyways, I can’t remember what I traded you, but I hope you enjoyed
it, because I enjoyed yours! Oh–I also wrote a mini review of your
book for the upcoming “Best Zine Ever” #5 which collects some of the
best zines from 2005. It’s put out by Tugboat Press and is FREE, so
maybe some people will contact you about ordering it (I put your
website down in the review, I think).
Okay, I have a confession to make.
I totally sweated over that thing. I wrote and re-wrote and wrote those stories so many times, I actually got sick of Tarot (sacre bleu!). That skinny little thing took me months. And here’s a second confession: it’s really kind of a drag to go through all that work and then not get a single piece of feedback until yet more months after it makes its way out into the world.
Don’t get me wrong. I have fairly reasonable expectations for a chapbook of flash fiction. I wasn’t expecting the skies to open up and the seas to part. All the same, you know what I mean?
If you’re out there picking up and supporting indy comics and indy-whatever-else, I encourage you to go that extra step and send the artists some feedback, especially if it’s positive. It’s slow going, this making-in-spite-of-the-obstacles thing. A little fuel in the form of outside feedback can really help a thirsty creator. Even if you don’t like the work, if you take a minute to put a few well-reasoned, constructive sentences together, the person on the receiving end will know and understand that you were paying attention, AND they’ll have some things to think about for the next time. They’ll feel it. It means so much, really.
Thank you, Alec. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to let me know.
